-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- As we mark the 25th observance of World AIDS Day on December 1 , we have a golden opportunity to begin to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic .

To start with , this has been an extraordinary year for HIV/AIDS research , with headline-grabbing breakthroughs that stand as undeniable evidence of progress toward a cure .

The first documented case of a child cured of HIV , reported in March , was followed in July by a report of two adult HIV patients no longer showing any signs of virus after undergoing stem-cell transplants and stopping antiretroviral treatment .

Much work lies ahead before these and other scientific advances can be parlayed into a broadly applicable cure that can be made available to the 35 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide .

But it is an irony bordering on tragedy that just as a cure for HIV/AIDS is beginning to seem like a realistic proposition , the belt-tightening measures of the age of austerity could halt our momentum , cripple our progress and dash our hopes for ending AIDS in our lifetime .

As a result of U.S. budget sequestration , the National Institutes of Health -- the engine of progress on AIDS research for 30 years -- will lose $ 229 million in AIDS research funding in the coming year .

This caps a dismal decade for AIDS and other biomedical research support : From 2003 to 2012 , the NIH lost 22 of its purchasing power as a result of stagnant levels of funding .

This hammer blow to AIDS research funding will be accompanied by cuts to a range of other HIV/AIDS programs -- cuts that will have negligible effect on the federal deficit but will have real consequences for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States and around the world .

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Based on the latest available data , amfAR , The Foundation for AIDS Research , has estimated that reduced funding for the President 's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -LRB- PEPFAR -RRB- alone could result in 228,000 fewer people receiving treatment for HIV . This could lead to as many as 52,000 AIDS-related deaths and could leave more than 100,000 children orphaned .

The Institute of Medicine has said that PEPFAR has been `` globally transformative '' and has `` had major positive effects on the health and well-being of individual beneficiaries , on institutions and systems in partner countries , and the overall global response to AIDS . ''

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Why , then , are we shortchanging a program that enjoys broad bipartisan and popular support , has done more than any other foreign policy initiative in recent years to burnish America 's image abroad , and has already altered -- though not irreversibly -- the trajectory of the HIV/AIDS pandemic ?

Nor will people living with HIV here in the United States be spared . amfAR also estimates that the sequester could cause about 15,000 Americans who need help paying for their medications to lose support from the AIDS Drug Assistance Program .

And more than 4,000 households could lose housing assistance as a result of cuts in the federally funded Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS program . All of these cuts will fall disproportionately on people of color .

Just a few years ago , the notion of a cure for HIV was considered by many to be heretical . It was creating false hope . It was n't technically feasible . It could n't be done . That all changed with the first reports , in 2008 , of Timothy Brown , the `` Berlin patient . ''

While on treatment for HIV , Brown was diagnosed with leukemia . To treat the leukemia , he received a stem-cell transplant -- with a twist . His savvy German doctor deliberately sought , and found , a stem-cell donor from among a very small group of people born with a genetic mutation that renders them highly resistant to HIV infection . After the transplant , Brown was able to stop HIV treatment without experiencing a return of the disease .

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Similarly , the idea of an `` AIDS-free generation '' today is tossed around with abandon . It was n't always thus . But over 30 years , we have developed a raft of tools that enable us to effectively prevent and treat HIV infection . What 's more , research has shown us conclusively that treatment is prevention . Putting people on antiretroviral drugs makes them less infectious and less likely to transmit the virus to others .

Combine a broader deployment of these tools with an expansion of programs such as PEPFAR and a sustained investment in research , and you have a trifecta : a winning combination that could achieve the conquest of the AIDS pandemic in the foreseeable future .

Backpedal on AIDS , and you 'll pretty much guarantee that we 'll be dealing with it for generations to come .

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The opinions expressed are solely those of Kevin Robert Frost and Sharon Stone .

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It 's been a year of breakthroughs in HIV/AIDS research

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But sequestration and cutbacks will affect those living with the disease

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Backpedaling on AIDS may mean we continue grappling with it for generations